So I got a fairly decent rejection slip a couple of weeks ago on a ghost story I had written, (Proof of Principle.) The editor suggested that I had some clumsy structure in my sentences and that by removing words here and there, and an occasional sentence entirely, I would improve the piece.

Getting this sort of feedback is really mind–blowing. It means I am getting fairly close to writing something good enough to sell to a pro-level market. The editor also suggest I try reading the work aloud to guide my edits.

Luckily for me I have just purchased a digital voice recorder. (A Sanyo Fp-600) I plan to use it to record the feedback dinner discussion for Cawdor and convention panels. (I can be a horrid note taker.) So in an attempt to edit this story I am reading it into the digital voice recorder. Any time I stumble over a phrase, I stop and go back to record that section. If I stumble twice, that gets rewritten. Also I am finding things that simply slipped past my eye, but not my ear. I am very excited about the prospects for my editing.